Hi, all!
It's been a busy week, and my scraps have been languishing to some extent - many of them are still sitting in that blue bin waiting to be pressed and folded! But I've also prepped some orange peel segments that I'm hoping to appliqué next week... so maybe I'll have more progress to show on that front next week!
This week seems like it will be like that song - "a little bit of this, a little bit of that"! I've got some pics to share, some ideas for storage, and one scrappy quilt top to share. So let's get started!
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It seems like the scrap quilt craze has hit our group at church, too! Lisa has been making scrap quilts since the beginning of the year, but here are two that she's been working on recently - a pretty string quilt...
...and this orphan block quilt, made using the same technique as the one I made last week! All of a sudden, our orphan block boxes are looking a lot more attractive as we find new and interesting ways to use them. Hooray!!
And take a look at Lisa E's cool orphan block quilt - similar but not exactly the same as last week's quilt. I like this for a more structured, planned look, and will add it to my idea vault for future use!
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Now - how do you store your scraps once you've cut them into usable sizes? I've seen lots of interesting methods, like this one for strip storage...
...or how about this idea - using plastic take-out food containers to store your bits and pieces! What a great way renew/reuse/recycle, and it gives you free storage!
And here's what I've found that works best for me - plastic shoeboxes! I've found them as inexpensive as 75 cents each, but usually about $1 apiece. I use them to store my pre-cut pieces...
...and also as project boxes, to keep all the pieces for a quilt together in one place.
At a buck apiece, I can have as many as I need, and their relatively small size means I can get a lot of them on a bookshelf, double stacked. The see-through sides makes it easy to see at a glance what is inside, although I also label the ends.
I also use these scrapbooking storage boxes for orphan blocks. Their large size allows most blocks to lay flat and it's easy to keep similarly sized blocks together!
I also have this storage system from IKEA - a great bargain at only $20 for the frame and four wire drawers - that I use to hold all my precuts, sorted by type - fat quarters in one drawer, jelly rolls in another, charms and mini-charms in a third, and kits in a fourth.
Oh wait - who am I kidding? I have several of these drawer sets because they are so versatile! You can see two sets stacked here, and I have another three or four underneath my quilt frame. No, they're not all full of pre-cuts - that would be ridiculous! Well, ok, it would be awesome, but I promise, they're used for things like mailing supplies and interfacing.
What do you use to store your bits and bobs? Are you happy with it, or are you looking for something better?
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And now for my scrappy quilt top for the week. I was cleaning off my studio worktable after binding five quilts last week, and when I went to put away the binding scraps, I found that my binding box was running over!
(Maybe I should mention my binding storage system. I take my binding scraps, measure them, then wind them up around my hand, pinning the bundle closed with a post-it with the measurement on it. Then I arrange them neatly in the binding box.
This way, when I need to make a scrappy binding, all I have to do is figure out how much I need, then go in and pull scrap bundles until the numbers add up to at least as much as I need! I always cut my binding 2 1/4" wide, so it's easy to mix and match. I also have a small ziplock bag in there containing bias binding, which I don't use often but still have scraps of.)
Because the box was running over, I decided to pull out all my solid binding scraps and use them to make a jelly-roll race style quilt. When I started sorting through them I found a lot of longer pieces and a whole lot of navy and black, so I cut the longer pieces down to between 30 and 40 inches, and alternated brighter colors with the navy and black pieces. I really wasn't sure how it would work - jelly roll race quilts don't give you much warning about how the colors are going to spread out across the quilt - but I absolutely love the way this turned out!
The black and navy strips make it so bold - now I'm trying to figure out how to quilt it. I'm thinking I may just quilt straight lines up and down, using the crease that still shows where the binding was pressed in half as a guideline. If you've got another suggestion, please speak up!
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So that's been my scrappy week! Next week will be the last Wednesday of the month, so start thinking about what you will have to share as far as progress on your scrappy goals for April. I know I need to get to work on my original goal - I see a few busy days ahead of me!
Hugs!
Sarah
